1989-90 Season Review

By Jim Brown

The major problem in season 1989-90 was the lack of goals scored. In 38 league matches City only managed to score 39, the lowest total since 1970-71 when they scored only 37. Despite the presence in the squad of Cyrille Regis and David Speedie, and the record purchases of Kevin Drinkell and Kevin Gallacher, no player got into double figures, the first time this had occurred in fifteen years. Speedie ended the season as top scorer with only eight league goals, despite missing eight games through his appalling disciplinary record. 

The defence, too, had an off season, conceding 59 goals, the worst record since 1985-86. If mitigating circumstances are sought, 38 of that total were crammed into just ten games. Liverpool hit City for six, and the Sky Blues were on the wrong end of a 1-4 scoreline on no less than five occasions. Yet they still managed to keep a clean sheet on thirteen occasions.

There was a considerable turnover of players in the summer. Peter Billing, a young centre-half from Crewe, joined for £120,000, and Kevin MacDonald arrived on a free from Liverpool. The third newcomer provided goalkeeping cover for Oggy with 33-year-old Keith Waugh, signed from Bristol City for £40,000, who, as luck would have it, had a first-team outing within a month.

David Phillips’ contract had expired and he had joined Norwich for a tribunal-set fee of £550,000. Steve Sedgley’s transfer request had been granted and he had signed for Tottenham for a fee of £750,000. Centre-back Graham Rodger had gone to Luton for £150,000. Transfer fees in general were escalating alarmingly but Sillett, with a net income of almost £1.3 million, thought the market was overheated and preferred to sit back and wait for quality players at affordable prices. When Chairman Poynton announced a profit of £770,000 – exclud­ing the summer income – fans questioned the wisdom of waiting.

The season started brightly, with three wins out of four lifting City to the top of the table. With a free weekend in the fixture list on account of international duties, City’s first ever occupation of pole position lasted ten days. In their first game as leaders they slumped 1-4 at Millwall, who took over the top spot themselves. That game saw Oggy injured, bringing an end to his long uninterrupted run of matches, leaving Waugh to make his debut. 

Despite the promising start, Sillett had been trying to strengthen the attack and swooped for Kevin Drinkell, who was surplus to requirements at Glasgow Rangers. Drinkell cost £800,000. He arrived with an impressive scoring record  and scored for City after only 23 minutes of his debut, a League Cup-tie against his old club Grimsby. Four goals in his first six games suggested that he had settled quickly to City’s style, but he too became a victim of the scoring drought, and by the end of the season many were doubting his value. 

Two good away wins saw City through to the last eight of the Littlewoods Cup, where the kind draw sent the Sky Blues to Second Division Sunderland. Thoughts of Wembley were in the air again, but before the tie at Roker Park, City suffered another FA Cup embarrassment, this time at Third Division Northampton. On a miserably wet day the Cobblers made light of the glue-pot pitch and their solitary goal was enough against a sad City side which barely created a chance. The supporters vented their anger: nothing seemed to have been learned in the twelve months since Sutton and the pervading opinion was that action was necessary. But for City being through to the quarter-finals of the other cup, decisive action would surely have been forthcoming. But Sillett, off the hook, did nothing other than appoint a new coach, Dixie McNeil. Many supporters were of the opinion that the side had become sterile and boring, the exact antithesis of Sillett’s principles, and that the man who had masterminded the heroics of 1987 had stayed loyal for too long to the under-achievers in his team. 

The heated reaction to the Northampton defeat stirred up the players sufficiently to despatch Sunderland, after a replay, with Steve Livingstone  amazingly netting four times. The victory set up a mouth-watering two-leg semi-final with Nottingham Forest. In the interim, Sillett broke the club’s transfer record for the second time in four months when paying £900,000 for Dundee United’s winger Kevin Gallacher. The lightweight Scottish international, having barely been introduced to his new team-mates, was thrown into the first leg at the City Ground, where he came face to face with Stuart Pearce in the first of many memorable duels between the two players. Forest came out narrowly on top that day, thanks to a debatable penalty and a Pearce ‘special’ from a free-kick, although TV replays exposed Forest’s shenanigans in the defensive wall as the kick was taken. In the second leg, Forest battened down the hatches, securing the goal-less draw they sought, en route to a successful Wembley final against Oldham.

It was typical of Coventry City that a cup defeat should spark a rich vein of league form. An epic win over Aston Villa, with Drinkell coming off the bench to score, was trumped by an improb­able 4-2 win at Forest, which saw City climb to fourth in the table with nine games remaining. The good form had shallow founda­tions, however, and one win out of the final nine saw City slip into the bottom half. Home defeats by Charlton and Sheffield Wednes­day, both doomed, was an insult to City’s pride, as was a final day hammering at home by the champions, Liverpool. Sillett did not help his cause afterwards by warmly applauding the Merseyside fans, while appearing to ignore City’s own supporters.

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